Anger Management
by Audio Pineapple
Summary: After Chase angers the family of a patient he is treating, he has to deal with the consequences.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters and I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form with anyone who does.

It had been a long morning and the last thing that Chase wanted to deal with was a difficult patient. He strode down the corridor, wondering if House had assigned him the patient as revenge for being the snitch. It certainly felt that way as he entered the room to find that the patient wasn't alone. He now had his family with him, mother, father, older brother and younger sister from the looks of it. Chase cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Mr and Mrs Johnson? We found the cause of your son's complaint. He's been taking cocaine, little bit of ecstasy as well."

"I haven't!" He had been expecting the kid to argue with him, most did when their family heard their secrets.

"He's only sixteen!" The father's face had flushed red with defensive anger and Chase flipped to the correct test results on his chart, handing them over.

"These are the lab results from the tests that we did on your son…"

"He has a name!"

"Right. These are the lab results from the tests that we did on Kevin. He tested positive for both substances. That's why he collapsed this morning."

"I would know if my son took drugs!" The mother had stood up from her chair next to the bed, laying a supportive hand on the shoulder of her husband.

"Well many parents are actually unaware that their children are addicts."

"What the hell did you say?"

"What did you just call him?"

"Where the hell do you get off saying something like that?"

Chase swallowed hard; this was becoming more of a chore than he had anticipated. Both the parents were now fuming angry and he decided to try to appeal to Kevin for help. "Kevin? The tests don't lie so you're going to have to admit it. There are some good rehabilitation programs out there that you could…"

"I don't have a problem!" His parents turned their attention to him for a moment, obviously questioning the choice of words, "I've never taken drugs! Mom, dad, you know I wouldn't!"

"You're tests are wrong."

"Mr. Johnson, the tests aren't wrong. We run everything twice and drugs are the reason that your son collapsed."

"If he says he didn't take any drugs then…"

"Then he's lying!" Chase looked at the faces in front of him, all slightly taken aback by the raise in his voice.

"Why would he say that about Kevin daddy?" The little sister, Chase guessed that she was around seven or eight years old, looked almost distraught.

"Because he's a bad man sweetie."

Chase found it so unbelievable that he had to pretend his laugh was a cough. He was just trying to give them the facts. "I'm not a bad man!"

"Do the tests again!"

"We've already done them twice Mrs…"

"Then get us a better doctor," the brother stood up as well, probably in his late teens and advanced across the room to stand in front of Chase. He was taller than him, bulkier as well and Chase couldn't help but feel intimidated. "An American doctor."

"Oh, so I'm a bad doctor because I'm Australian?" His voice had risen again, he was finding it hard not to shout.

"Kevin isn't on drugs, he's my baby brother, you don't get to decide that!"

"No! I don't! But the bloody tests do get to decide that! They say that your son, your brother, your whatever the hell you want to call him is a druggie. He takes cocaine, he takes ecstasy and that is why he collapsed! There is no medical mystery here, he's just another stupid teenage addict!"

The girl began to cry and the brother's hands clenched into fists as the father snarled at him, "get out! Get the hell out!"

Chase left, slamming the door behind him as he marched up the corridor into one of the doctor's lounges. He waited there for quarter of an hour before Cuddy appeared before him, arms folded across her chest, an annoyed look on her face, "we need to talk about what you just did."


	2. Chapter 2

Chase tried to look away from Cuddy as she glared at him, repeating herself "we need to talk about what you just did."

"I didn't do anything…"

"You called a patient an addict."

"He is an addict!"

"I know but you don't start screaming it at the parents! What the hell were you thinking?"

He shook his head, not sure what exactly had happened. He had not gone into the room planning to shout and argue, it just ended up that way. It was House's fault for giving him such a difficult patient to begin with. "I don't know. House…"

The expression on her face twisted from anger to disbelief, "House? You are taking lessons on patient relationships from House?"

"No. No, god no." The thought was sickening to him. House was good at what he did but he was terrible with patients. Actually, Chase remembered, he was terrible with people even when they weren't patients and he wasn't going to let himself turn into House under any circumstances. "He deliberately gave me _this_ patient," he saw Cuddy roll her eyes, "so that I _would_ shout!"

"It's no excuse."

"So do I have to go and apologise to them?"

"No. I managed to calm them down enough that they agreed not to make a fuss if I gave them a different doctor."

"Should give them House," Chase laughed at the image in his head. If the family thought he had been blunt then they would be entirely unprepared.

"No, I gave them Cameron."

"Of course," Cameron would be able to calm them down, she had that way about her; she could calm anyone.

Cuddy turned around and began to walk towards the door but paused, the anger gone from her voice; "so what happened Chase?"

He shook his head, not being able to admit to her why he had lost his temper. He couldn't admit how he was on tenterhooks, waiting for the day when House would become bored with his games and finally fire him.

"Okay… just don't turn into him."

She left and Chase found himself wondering if that was going to be House's next game. He decided, leaving the room; that it was never going to happen; he'd rather resign.


	3. Chapter 3

Chase had gotten up, frowning as he paced the corridors, not having anything else to do. He was up to date on his clinic duty and there were no patients to treat; the only one had now been snapped up Cameron. Not that he resented that fact; he wasn't in the mood to be dealing with that family anymore. Once had been enough, but he still wanted something to do.

"Hey Chase," he cringed as Foreman came up to him and wondered if he should fake a page. He didn't know what the conversation would be but he would either guess that it would mean him getting berated or ridiculed. He decided that it would look too convenient if he got a page right then so he held off his plan, at least for a couple of minutes. "Heard you went crazy."

"I didn't go crazy."

"But you did shout at a patient?"

"Well it was mainly his family," Chase mumbled, wanting to avoid the smile that was now plastered on Foreman's face.

"That's hilarious. I can't imagine you shouting at anyone… well, except for us a couple of times."

"It wasn't funny."

"Hell; all I'm saying is that I wish I'd been there."

"It wasn't funny!" He repeated himself, feeling annoyed at Foreman's smug face. "Stop it!"

"Stop what?"

"Laughing at me."

"I'm not laughing at you." Even saying so made Foreman laugh slightly, trying to discard it as a cough.

"See."

"So what made you snap?"

"I didn't snap."

"Fine, what made you raise your voice slightly?"

"They were disagreeing with me."

"That's it? Patient's disagree with us all the time."

"The kid's tests were positive for drugs and the parent's wouldn't believe me. And then they said that they wanted an American doctor! What was I supposed to do, just stand there and take it from them?"

"Yeah, you were." He smiled at himself, "anyway, I still have patients. Why don't you go and spend some spare time playing gameboy."

Chase called after Foreman's retreating frame. "I'm not turning into House!" His only response was for Foreman to resist holding in his laughs any further. "I'm not turning into House," he muttered to himself, "I can't be."

**A/N:** Well I've reached the half-way point of the story so I wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite Foreman's suggestion, Chase hadn't been relaxing. He had refused to, instantly burrowing his head into the first medical textbook that he had come across. It wouldn't hurt to enhance his knowledge further and it was doing a good job of making him forget about his previous outburst and how he was no the favourite gossiping topic in the entire hospital.

"Didn't expect to find you studying."

He didn't look up to meet Cameron's gaze, he just wanted to be left alone, "why? What did you expect me to do? Twiddle my cane?"

She laughed as though she thought he was being stupid. "You don't have a cane."

"Well I will do soon. Haven't you heard the news? I'm turning into House."

"You're not turning into House."

"Yeah? Why'd you say that?"

"Because there's only one House. And House is House, he's… unique."

Chase shrugged, lifting his head, "how are the patients from Hell?"

"They're fine. I don't see why you had a problem with them."

He almost choked on his own spittle at the comment, "haven't you heard what they've said yet?"

"No."

"But everyone is talking about it."

"No, everyone is talking about how one of Houses' protégés has started to lose it. Nobody's talking about the family," he raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her, "one account is saying that you insulted them because they were Jewish, another is saying that it is because they're black, in some you make sexual come-ons towards the wife, some the husband. I've heard it was the teenage boy a couple of times."

"Well none of it's true. I didn't do anything to them but tell them that their son had been taking drugs."

"I said that and they didn't attack me. Maybe you just told them in the wrong way. I was nice and calming and I didn't shout or patronize them."

"Yeah, we know, you're the best damn doctor on the planet. Everyone loves having Cameron as a doctor because she is so lovely to them and they can see through her top."

"Hey!" She looked down at her top before folding her arms across her chest, "you don't have a right to say that." She began to leave, a scowl plastered on her lips, "and I may just buy you a cane for your birthday."


End file.
